Virtualization technology enables a single host computer running a virtual machine monitor (“VMM”) to present multiple abstractions and/or views of the host, such that the underlying hardware of the host appears as one or more independently operating virtual machines (“VMs”). Each VM may function as a self-contained platform, running its own firmware (“BIOS”), operating system (“OS”) and/or a software application(s). The VMM manages allocation and virtualization of host resources, and performs context switching as necessary to cycle between or across various virtual machines according to a round-robin or other scheduling algorithms.
Given the complexity and processing requirements of virtualization, this technology has typically been available only on workstations, servers and/or mainframes for use by sophisticated users. As processor technology advances, however, virtualization is being made available in the desktop environment for use by average users.
As virtualization becomes more commonly available in the desktop environment (e.g., a desktop host) the most likely users are unlikely to be computer professionals (e.g., information technology specialists in corporate environments) but rather less sophisticated users (e.g., home personal computer (“PC”) users and/or non-technical, less sophisticated corporate users). The applications that run within the desktop environment and the types of uses for the applications may also differ from corporate applications. For example, one use of virtualization in a home (and the associated advantage of running one or more independent VMs on a host) may be for each family member to be allocated a VM partition with their own customized environment, e.g., a gaming VM partition, a Personal Video Recorder (“PVR”) appliance VM, an enterprise Information Technology (“IT”) supplied VM for telecommuting, etc. Moreover, it is likely that each user may have several VMs, each possibly dedicated for a specific task such as a dedicated VM for internet browsing, one for gaming applications, one replicating a user's legacy system (e.g. previously owned PC and SW environment), etc. Some might be scheduled to run 24×7 (e.g. a personal video recorder (“PVR)), while others are launched and exited frequently. In this environment, the average home PC user may be overwhelmed by the task of understanding and/or managing the VM partitions (e.g., moving files, setting up access permissions, etc.).